Research on nonhuman species has remarkably flourished over the last three decades in the Humanities and Social Sciences, suggesting new perspectives and approaches which go beyond the traditional study of animals as either sources of practical benefits (food, raw material, labor work, hunting) or arbitrary cultural representations to be used as rhetorical tools (similes, metaphors).
Borrowing from the current agenda of disciplines such as Cultural Anthropology, Semiotics, Cognitive ecology, Human-animal Studies and Critical studies scholars in the field of Classical and Medieval studies have started focusing on the ways different cultures represent other species both in their systematic [Guasparri 2004, Li Causi 2003, Zucker 2005] and encyclopedic knowledge [Bettini 1998, Bodson 1978, Detienne-Vernant 1979, Franco 2003, Trinquier 2004, Voisenet 2000].
Towards multidisciplinary research projects on animals in Ancient and Medieval cultures and societies
Perspectives interdisciplinaires et méthodologiques pour l’étude de l’animal dans l’Antiquité et au Moyen-Age
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